The "Letter of Allegation" is out there and published and now it is the Queen of Thailand's turn to respond. She either took the Akha land or didn't. The girls of the village have had to go to Bangkok, at least twenty boys of the village are now in prison, go to HELL QUEEEN of THAILAND. You stole the land, you ruin the families, Hell hath no fury like an Akha woman scorned, families shattered, children shipped overseas, finances ruined, health ruined.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/category,COI,,,THA,4a66d9a3c,0.html
The highland minorities of Thailand live in the mountainous west and north. As many as 20 different 'hill tribes', totalling 1 million people according to some estimates, live in Thailand and include, among the more numerous, the Akha, Karen, Lahu, Lisu, H'mong and Mien. The government does not recognize the existence of indigenous peoples in Thailand. It maintains that they are migrants and thousands of them continue to be denied registration for an identification card.
Non-citizen hill tribes are among the most vulnerable groups. Without proper political status, they face expulsion when their temporary stay expires. Without nationality and treated as second-class citizens, they suffer multiple discrimination, including lack of access to land and deprivation of basic human rights.
In August 2008 the UN Special Rapporteur highlighted the case of the Akha indigenous people in Chiangrai province, whose land was allegedly seized in 2003 as a result of the Highland Development Station Project. The objective of the station was purportedly to serve as a 'centre of knowledge on agriculture for the hill tribe people'. The Akha claim that the project has left them with only a few small plots around the village, and they have lost their traditional livelihoods. The land seizure was reportedly accompanied by widespread harassment of Akha villagers by members of the military and forestry personnel. Villagers say they were not consulted, nor did they consent to the project, and they have not yet been compensated for their loss. The government has so far not responded to the concerns raised by the Special Rapporteur.
The recent UNESCO Highland Peoples survey studied a sample group of 192 border villages in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son provinces, to determine the impact of a person's legal status (citizenship and birth registration) on access to social services, education, health care, land tenure and agricultural credit. A study of a sample group revealed that 38 per cent of highland minorities do not have Thai citizenship. Compared to highlanders with Thai citizenship, those lacking citizenship are 73 per cent less likely to enter primary school and 98 per cent less likely to progress to higher education. Similarly, highlanders who lack birth registration are 64 per cent less likely to enter lower primary school and 85 per cent less likely to enter secondary school relative to highlanders with official Thai birth registration.
Highland peoples' lower rates of participation in schooling, are also possibly linked in addition to poorly equipped and staffed schools to the almost complete absence of instruction in their mother tongue in state schools.
UNESCO research has also identified 'lack of citizenship' as the greatest risk factor for highland girls and women in Thailand to be trafficked, or otherwise exploited.
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Akha: Queen's Royal Project Rips off Hooh Yoh Akha's Landby akhazauh2,746 views
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